Jump to content

Japanese hat for discussion


Fortunes Of War
 Share

Recommended Posts

Fortunes Of War

I recently acquired this hat and had never seen another like it. Not sure if it is Japanese merchant or.......? It does have a small brass compass star placed within the gold bullion anchor badge on the front. There are also at least 3 black ink stamps on the inside liner, including one in the rear for "size large". I was hoping that someone could give me a tutorial. Thank you in advance.

post-185927-0-33618600-1550430395.jpg

post-185927-0-91849800-1550430431_thumb.jpg

post-185927-0-09297900-1550430452.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fortunes Of War

Another odd thing that I noticed is that one side of the hat has 3 vent grommets, while the other side only has 2. The rear of the cap has 3 tightening grommets going down each side of the split; there are no tie strings present.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The cap is not a standard military issue cap, but based upon the materials and construction and is private purchase for an officer or even a merchant petty officer. The purple size stamp on the interior liner is found on caps of this type of cap and not military caps. The cap has seen a lot of wear....appears the sweat band is missing, hard to tell from the pictures. Not exactly sure what the other stamp is on the liner. The insignia on the front is a merchant insignia. There were any number of merchant naval schools set up....with various insignia however, the compass star was a merchant insignia. The star came in several different designs, with either 8 points or 10 points or a kanji character in the center of the star. Each school had a different insignia. But their uniforms had a very naval appearance and were not that much different from the navy uniform. That same 8 point compass star was worn by naval reservist but on regular naval insignia and uniforms. The merchant navy transported troops and supplies and were not a great different then the regular navy. They transported POW's and I they had regular some naval officers and enlisted on board to assist the merchant personnel. Nice cap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry, I didn't read the above comment until I posted my comment. I'm old and slow ! The number of grommets changed on ALL military caps at different stages of the war and depending upon the manufacturer and whether they had the manpower to produce caps. Some manufacturers reduced the number of grommets and the use of metal as a time and material saver. The grommets don't go all the way through the liner...maybe a replacement liner. I can't explain why 2 on one side and 3 on the other. Some late war caps have the same thing. Also the number of size adjustment holes on the back of the cap....the navy used 2 on each side of the slit while the army used 3. Private purchase caps could have as many as the buyer wanted if they had the money !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fortunes Of War

Thank you Tiger41 for the replies and for the detailed information. I have seen quite a few of the standard (white, black and green), navy field caps. How often does a cap like this one appear?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of the hats were service hats with merchant insignia....they started wearing caps like combat caps They are out there but they were mostly in Japan....so caps like this were not brought back as souvenirs.....frankly, I don't think most GI's would have thought much of them. The merchant navy did wear the Type I black and Type II white very similar to the navy caps and they had Type III exactly like the navy wore later in the war which you do see a few of. The insignia is the only difference in the caps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fortunes Of War

Thank you again Tiger41 for the information and the feedback. So, would a cap like this be considered difficult to find?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...